docs: add PLAN.md with roadmap, architecture, milestones
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# Verbatim — Development Plan
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> ASCII physics RPG. Noita's cellular automaton + Caves of Qud's RPG depth.
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> Every symbol is a material with physics. Every entity is a body with mass.
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## Current State (June 2026)
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### What Works
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| System | Status | Details |
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|--------|--------|---------|
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| Cellular automaton | Working | 14 materials: sand, water, stone, lava, wood, flesh, bone, steam, fire, acid, smoke, grass, dirt, empty |
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| Rigid entities | Working | AABB collider, sliding on surfaces, 27 sub-bodies (5x5 + arm), player + goblins |
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| Ragdoll corpses | Working | Verlet constraints, death = rigid→ragdoll transition with inherited velocity |
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| Terminal renderer | Working | Full terminal size, ANSI truecolor, diff-based rendering |
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| AI pipe protocol | Working | JSON stdin/stdout, 16 commands, full state export |
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| Test framework | Working | 28 Rust tests + 8 JSON scenarios, all passing |
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| Replay system | Working | Seeded determinism, record/playback, play_until_tick |
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| World generation | Basic | Sinusoidal terrain, water/lava/acid pools, wood structure, sand dune, stone wall |
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### Architecture
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```
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Source of truth: text grid (250x250, char + material + temp)
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Three entity types:
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1. Cellular — materials in grid, per-cell CA rules
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2. Rigid — alive entities, AABB collider, single velocity
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3. Ragdoll — corpses, loose Verlet bodies, independent physics
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Game loop: fixed 60Hz timestep
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Physics tick: CA step → rigid update → ragdoll update → damage
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Render: terminal (ANSI) or pipe (JSON) or headless (file dump)
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```
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### Numbers
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- ~4600 lines Rust
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- 28 integration tests, 8 JSON scenarios
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- 11 git commits
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- 0 compiler warnings
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---
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## Roadmap
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### Phase 1: Combat & Interaction (next)
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**Goal: entities can fight and affect each other**
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- [ ] Melee combat: rigid entity AABB overlap → damage exchange
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- [ ] Health bars in terminal render (colored indicator above entity)
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- [ ] Death → ragdoll → corpse decomposition (flesh cells drop into grid over time)
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- [ ] Projectile system: thrown objects (arrows, fireballs) as lightweight rigid bodies
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- [ ] Material interaction with entities: entity walks through fire → ignites, acid → dissolves
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- [ ] Knockback: damage applies velocity impulse to rigid body center
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- [ ] Goblin AI: move toward player, attack when adjacent, flee when low HP
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**Tests needed:**
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- Melee damage between two entities
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- Knockback direction correctness
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- Corpse decomposition produces flesh cells in grid
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- Projectile travels and deals damage on hit
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- Goblin AI moves toward player
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### Phase 2: World & Exploration
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**Goal: explorable world with depth and variety**
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- [ ] Chunk system: world divided into chunks (64x64), only active chunks simulated
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- [ ] Chunk persistence: save/load chunks to disk
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- [ ] Vertical descent: stairs/holes between depth levels
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- [ ] Biomes: grassland, cave, lava cavern, ice, fungus forest — each with material palette
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- [ ] Procedural dungeon generation: rooms, corridors, traps
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- [ ] Camera zoom: +/- keys to change viewport scale (more or fewer cells visible)
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- [ ] Minimap: ASCII overview of explored area
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- [ ] Day/night cycle: ambient light affects rendering (dimmer at night)
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**Tests needed:**
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- Chunk save/load roundtrip preserves state
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- Entity crossing chunk boundary continues correctly
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- Dungeon generation produces connected rooms
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- Biome materials match expected palette
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### Phase 3: RPG Layer
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**Goal: character progression, inventory, abilities**
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- [ ] Stats: strength, agility, toughness, willpower — affect damage, speed, HP, etc.
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- [ ] Inventory system: items as data structs, pick up by walking over, drop with key
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- [ ] Equipment: weapon affects melee damage/range, armor affects damage reduction
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- [ ] Items in world: weapons, potions, scrolls, food — rendered as distinct ASCII chars
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- [ ] Mutations (Caves of Qud style): modify entity properties
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- "Silicon skin" → entity material becomes Stone, immune to acid
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- "Flame body" → entity emits fire cells, immune to fire
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- "Liquid form" → entity can squeeze through 1-cell gaps
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- "Multiple arms" → extra attack, can hold more items
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- [ ] XP and leveling: kill entities → gain XP → level up → choose mutation
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- [ ] Skills: active abilities on cooldown (dash, stomp, material blast)
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- [ ] Status effects: burning, poisoned, frozen, bleeding — each with tick effect
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- [ ] Dialogue: talk to NPCs, simple text tree
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**Tests needed:**
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- Stat modifiers affect combat correctly
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- Item pickup/drop maintains inventory integrity
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- Mutation changes entity material/properties
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- XP accumulation triggers level up
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- Status effect ticks deal correct damage
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### Phase 4: Vulkan Renderer
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**Goal: 60+ FPS windowed rendering with GPU**
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- [ ] ash (Vulkan) bootstrap: instance, device, swapchain, render pass
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- [ ] Glyph atlas: DejaVu Sans Mono rasterized at startup via fontdue
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- [ ] Instanced rendering: one draw call for all visible cells
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- [ ] Persistent mapped buffer for instance data
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- [ ] Dirty cell tracking: only update changed cells in instance buffer
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- [ ] Camera: smooth follow, zoom levels
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- [ ] Post-processing: subtle bloom for lava/fire, vignette
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- [ ] `--mode auto`: try Vulkan, fallback to terminal
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- [ ] Single binary: font embedded via include_bytes!
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**Tests needed:**
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- Vulkan init doesn't crash on supported hardware
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- Render output matches terminal render for same state
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- Frame time < 16ms with full viewport
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### Phase 5: Content & Polish
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**Goal: playable vertical slice**
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- [ ] Factions: goblins, skeletons, slimes, trolls — each with AI behavior
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- [ ] Boss entity: large rigid body (10x10), multiple attack patterns
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- [ ] Books/readable items: lore text displayed in terminal
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- [ ] Crafting: combine materials to create new ones (water + dirt = mud)
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- [ ] Sound: procedural audio via terminal bell or optional ALSA
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- [ ] Save/load: full game state to file (grid + entities + player + inventory)
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- [ ] Death screen: stats summary, cause of death
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- [ ] Tutorial: first-time controls overlay
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- [ ] Difficulty scaling: deeper levels = stronger enemies
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### Phase 6: Advanced Physics
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**Goal: deeper Noita-style material simulation**
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- [ ] Pressure: liquids have pressure, flow through pipes and U-bends
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- [ ] Temperature gradient: heat radiates, materials melt/freeze at thresholds
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- [ ] Electricity: conductive materials carry current, shocks entities
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- [ ] Explosions: rapid gas expansion, creates fire + destroys terrain
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- [ ] Structural integrity: stone/wood can collapse under load
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- [ ] GPU compute: cellular automaton on Vulkan compute shader for large worlds
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- [ ] Fluid simulation: proper Navier-Stokes for water instead of CA approximation
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**Tests needed:**
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- Pressure equalizes in connected containers
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- Heat propagates through conductive materials
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- Electricity follows conductive path
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- Explosion destroys terrain in radius
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- Collapse triggers when support removed
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---
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## Architecture Decisions
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### Locked
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| Decision | Rationale |
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|----------|-----------|
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| Text grid as source of truth | AI-observable, dual renderer, single state |
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| Rust + crossterm + ash | Zero-cost, memory safety, explicit GPU control |
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| Fixed 60Hz timestep | Deterministic replay, consistent physics |
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| AABB for rigid, Verlet for ragdoll | Simple, no tunneling for rigid; expressive for ragdoll |
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| Seeded RNG for determinism | Replay system, reproducible tests |
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| JSON pipe protocol | Any AI agent can connect, no vision needed |
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| Single binary with embedded font | Portable, no external assets |
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### Open Questions
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| Question | Options | When to decide |
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|----------|---------|----------------|
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| Turn-based vs real-time | Currently real-time 60Hz. Qud is turn-based. Hybrid? | Phase 3 |
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| World topology | Single deep shaft vs branching dungeon vs open world | Phase 2 |
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| Save format | Binary (compact) vs JSON (debuggable) vs RON | Phase 5 |
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| Multiplayer | No. But pipe protocol could enable AI vs AI | Never (single-player) |
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| Modding | Data-driven materials from JSON/TOML? | Phase 3 |
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---
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## File Structure (current + planned)
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```
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src/
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main.rs # CLI entry point
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lib.rs # Library root
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game.rs # Game loop, world gen, entity management
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input.rs # Keyboard input → Action enum
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world/
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cell.rs # Cell struct, MaterialId enum
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material.rs # Material properties registry
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grid.rs # Grid (250x250), cell access
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cellular.rs # Cellular automaton rules
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chunk.rs # [Phase 2] chunk system
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worldgen.rs # [Phase 2] procedural generation
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physics/
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verlet.rs # Verlet integrator, constraints
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collision.rs # AABB-vs-grid collision (used by ragdoll)
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projectile.rs # [Phase 1] lightweight projectiles
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entity/
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entity.rs # Entity struct, rigid/ragdoll, build_humanoid
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player.rs # Player controller
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ai.rs # [Phase 1] goblin AI
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inventory.rs # [Phase 3] items and equipment
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stats.rs # [Phase 3] character stats
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mutations.rs # [Phase 3] mutation system
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render/
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mod.rs # Renderer trait
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terminal.rs # Terminal renderer (ANSI)
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vulkan.rs # [Phase 4] Vulkan renderer
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ai/
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session.rs # GameSession wrapper for AI/testing
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state.rs # JSON state export
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action.rs # AiAction enum
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protocol.rs # JSON pipe protocol
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replay.rs # Record/playback
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scenario.rs # JSON test scenarios
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tests/ # 28 integration tests
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scenarios/ # 8 JSON scenarios
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assets/
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DejaVuSansMono.ttf # Embedded font for Vulkan renderer
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```
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---
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## Performance Targets
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| Metric | Target | Current |
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|--------|--------|---------|
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| CA step (250x250) | < 1ms | ~0.5ms |
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| Rigid entity update | < 0.5ms per entity | ~0.2ms |
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| Terminal render frame | < 5ms | ~2ms (diff-based) |
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| Vulkan render frame | < 16ms (60 FPS) | N/A |
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| Pipe protocol latency | < 1ms per command | ~0.1ms |
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| Binary size (release) | < 10MB | ~6MB (debug, no Vulkan) |
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---
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## Testing Strategy
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| Layer | Method | Count |
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|-------|--------|-------|
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| Material physics | Rust integration tests | 15 |
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| Entity physics | Rust integration tests | 8 |
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| AI/replay | Rust integration tests | 4 |
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| JSON scenarios | Declarative test files | 8 |
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| Manual playtest | Terminal mode | As needed |
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| AI playtest | Pipe protocol + agent | Future |
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**Priority: every new feature gets tests before merge.**
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---
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## Release Milestones
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| Milestone | Content | Target |
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|-----------|---------|--------|
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| 0.1 (done) | Core engine: CA, rigid, ragdoll, terminal, AI pipe | June 2026 |
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| 0.2 | Combat, goblin AI, projectiles, corpse decomposition | July 2026 |
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| 0.3 | Chunks, biomes, dungeon gen, camera zoom | August 2026 |
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| 0.4 | RPG layer: stats, inventory, mutations, XP | October 2026 |
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| 0.5 | Vulkan renderer, save/load, polish | December 2026 |
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| 1.0 | Full vertical slice: content, balance, death screen | Q1 2027 |
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